Before buying a lot of fabric, I prefer to have a pattern planned. Fabric is expensive and I'm out of work. I have a stash, but it is mainly thrift store finds or great deals off the clearance sections. What I have done when I wanted to do a layer cake pattern was to wait till Joann's had FQs on sale for a dollar, and bought 40 of them that I liked. I figure that was what I would spend on a layer cake, and I cut 2 layer cakes and still had decent size scraps left that could be cut into charm squares or half strips, but I left them as 8x20" pieces to use for something later. I have bought precuts, but not usually.